Johnny Lee Conroy

What's New documentation for version 9.3?

Can anyone direct me to documentation that explicitly describes the changes in the product at the 9.3 version (compared to 7.5.4, in particular.)

I've read the Patch/Fix/Release information, but that doesn't say anything about things like the multiple layers of definitions, significant changes to the Patch Management engine and probably others. I've only picked up on these things by scanning through the forums.

I'd like to know everything that is going to look and/or act differently when we do the upgrade, BEFORE we do the upgrade. I'm hoping this is layed out in a single document.

Thanks.

Johnny Lee

John Watson

said
almost 2 years ago

The patch fix release article and the information in the closed beta forums is all the documentation that we have at this time.

Johnny Lee Conroy

said
almost 2 years ago

I don't understand. All of the Beta forums are closed and the comments are not available. How is a customer supposed to get detailed information about the changes to expect when going from version 7.5 to 9.3 if there is no documentation that lays this out? Just close our eyes, hope for the best and learn along the way?

John Watson

said
almost 2 years ago

Johnny,

I'm not sure what you mean about the comment. I do not see anything missing when I visit the forum as a guest.

The following post shows the changes and also has release notice attached to the bottom of the page.

This is all the documentation that we have at this time regarding the 9.3 release.

J

Johnny Lee Conroy

said
almost 2 years ago

Hi John:

Thanks for the link.I was looking under the “VIPRE Beta Programs” rather than the “VIPRE Business Beta Programs”, so I didn’t find this thread.There are still a lot of information gaps between the release announcement that links from the forum posting you point out here and the VIPRE Business Administration Guide for 9.3.

What’s up with the new definitions numbering?Now it shows up as two parts, a “primary” and “secondary” engine definition?I don’t see a reference or explanation to this in anything other than forum posts although this will be a marked difference visible to console operators. The comments for the closed beta threads aren't available, so we don't have access to the information that might have appeared there. (All of the closed threads have a big note at the end that says "Comments to this discussion are now closed!"

According to another post of yours:“Port 8123 is a new port for updating the secondary engine that is now in VIPRE 9.3. It is not configurable in any of the policy setting but is required for the updates to complete properly now.”I don’t see any reference to this in either document, much less and introduction or explanation of what the "secondary engine" is.

What other changes do we need to know about that might not be mentioned in the documentation?

John Watson

said
almost 2 years ago

Thank you for the post the definition number has changed for this release. As the documentations states there are now two scanning engines in the agent. The VIPRE engine and the beetle engine. The first set of numbers shows the definition version for the VIPRE engine the second set shows the version of definitions for the beetle engine.

The comments are now closed message means that the forum is locked so no responses can be added to those threads as they are not monitored after the beta ends. It is not actually hiding anything.

Port 8123 is the port the agent uses to update definitions for the second engine that was added. It is not configurable in the policy and cannot be changed. This port is normally already open on internal networks. If you have any setups that include port forwarding for a public IP to the VIPRE server for remote agents, this additional port would need to be forwarded for those remote machines. This is not a completely new port it was already being used in the previous premium version of the software for the patch management to function.

I hope this information is helpful.

J

Johnny Lee Conroy

said
almost 2 years ago

Which documentation says anything about the secondary (beetle) engine? It's not in either the release announcement or the administration guide.

John Watson

said
almost 2 years ago

I apologize the release document list it as an Improved scanning engine vs saying a second engine under the new features.

Johnny Lee Conroy

said
almost 2 years ago

Right. Nothing about the secondary engine anywhere.

The gist of my posts is just that these kinds of changes need to be at least noted if not explained somewhere that is easy for administrators to find. In general it is quite difficult to find product documentation on your website, without someone providing a link to it. Step back and look at your support home page. The only links are to Home, Solutions, Forums and Tickets, and in none of those can you find copies of product documentation. From the threattrack.com site you have to poke around to find VIPRE mentioned at all and from the vipreantivirus.com site it takes a bit of wondering around to find the product documentation.

All of which is to say it's not easy for administrators to find the information they need when they are considering upgrading the product. Take it as feedback, for what it's worth. No need to respond and thanks for your help.

B

Bryan Linton

said
over 1 year ago

Consider this an upvote of Jonny Lee Conroy's posts on this topic. As an administrator, I want a document that tells me everything I should expect when making a major update such as this. For example, if there's now a second scanning engine you call the "Beetle" engine, document it and explain it! And be consistent between documents to avoid creating confusion with your customers.

Think of it this way - if I am experienced and familiar with version 7.5.3.3 of the product, what will I notice as being obviously different with version 9.3? What differences might NOT be obvious that are still important for me to know? Think about those questions as they relate to the server, the client, and the console. Make a list of the answers to those questions, and then write a document to make me familiar with those differences. Anticipate my questions, and answer them in that document. Failure to do this will result in more support calls and more forum postings, each of which you will have to respond to individually. If you have ready a well-thought-out, well-written document at the time of release, that's work you'll only have to do once. That's not only better for your customers, but it's a more efficient use of your own resources. Please pass these comments up the line so the folks responsible for writing documentation can act on them. :-)